Chilly fall mornings. The smell of roasted coffee. Heated blankets. Fuzzy socks. The smell of savory breakfast muffins drifting up the stairs.
This is the time of year when I always want something warm and comforting. I’m usually wearing my most comfortable pajamas as I lazily saunter around the house. Who says PJs have to match???
Thankfully, my husband loves me even though my fall and winter in-home wardrobe is a little lacking in the sexy department hideous. Trust me – if I’m shivering, looking good is last in line. Shivering is NOT HAWT.
If he bought me these socks, is it really my fault?
I knew you were on my side.
I’ve been wanting to try savory muffins for awhile now – eating and baking them. So I adapted this recipe from Joy the Baker. Love her blog and you should, too.
I’ve always thought of muffins as a sweet treat. Chocolate muffins – yes! Blueberry – give me two. Feed me cinnamon muffins and you have my heart. You can call them muffins but, who are we kidding, it’s like having cake for breakfast. DING DING DING Score!
I like the idea of baking savory muffins because they seem unconventional. At least in my world, which is a world of finding ways to camouflage cake.
What I was most surprised by, when baking these heavenly cupcake-shaped breakfast treats, is the sweet and spicy smell sneaking out of the oven. It was like baking cookies and making eggs and sausage at the same time. My nose was blissfully confused.
Buy your favorite sausage (although you could substitute bacon if you wanted) but get a good quality sausage. Your muffins are only as good as the ingredients you use! My sausage happened to be of the pork variety and was handmade (so snobby) by my father-in-law. I’m usually not a super sausage fan but he makes his with a nice spicy bite and the hint of fennel gets me every time. Love that stuff. My freezer is packed with it. I feel lucky. 🙂
So go put on that old frayed Gap sweatshirt that’s so weathered down it’s become the softest thing you own and make some sausage and cheddar breakfast muffins! When your family tastes these, they’ll forget what you’re wearing.
Breakfast Muffins With Sausage, Cheddar & Green Onions
- Yield: 12 muffins 1x
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups crumbled browned sausage
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted (if you like a lot of salt, you could use salted butter)
- 8 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese (about 2 1/2 to 3 cups)
- 1/2 cup chopped green onions
- 4 cherry tomatoes, sliced no thinner than 1/8″ (optional)
- Sea salt and black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°.
- Grease and flour muffin pans.
- Preheat olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Take skin off sausage (if any) and break into smaller pieces. Once skillet is heated, add crumbled sausage and cook until nicely browned, stirring occasionally. As sausage is browning, break into smaller pieces if necessary. Set aside.
- (Optional: While the sausage is cooking, you can slice your cherry tomatoes into slices about 1/8″ thick. You don’t want them any thinner than that. Lay the slices on a paper towel and then lay another paper towel over the slices and blot away any moisture. The seeds will probably fall off and that’s okay. The idea is you don’t want water from the tomatoes getting in your batter.)
- In large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
- In medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, melted butter, and egg.
- Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and stir. Before the mixture is completely mixed together, add the sausage, cheese, and green onions. Stir all ingredients together, making sure the additions are evenly incorporated. Try not to over-mix it.
- Divide batter into muffin pans.
- If using tomatoes, add one slice to the top of each muffin.
- Lightly sprinkle sea salt and fresh ground pepper over the tops of the muffins. (I used a medium coarse setting for the pepper to give it an extra spicy flavor.)
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown or until toothpick test comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool muffins in pan for 15 minutes before removing them.
- Best served warm. But I found that you could leave them out for a brunch and they taste just fine at room temperature.
Notes
More great recipes at www.thekitchensnob.com
Failed Recipes and Foodie Fumbles
I made these for my sister and her husband over the Christmas holiday and they were a hit! I made them again at home and subbed diced ham for sausage and it was also delicious. I put dried cranberries in a few of them and that didn’t go as well but I still ate them!?
Thank you for sharing the recipe,
I’ll make this often!
I’m so glad you liked them, Kellie. And kudos for being adventurous and trying the cranberries. Hey, you never know if it will work unless you try it!
Absolutely delicious!
OMG. EASY delicious. Having a garage sale today and what a treat for all the helpers. Thanks so much. Will be a regular. Oh my tomatoes out of my garden we’re small but bigger than cherry size and worked great.
Thanks for your comment, Sue! I appreciate it 🙂
I was excited to try them… so much so that I started without checking for all the ingredients!! Had to replace egg with applesauce and make a replacement buttermilk with milk and lemon juice, but they were fantastic! The kids loved them!
Hi, Tim! Interesting – thanks for letting me know! I love hearing that.
Any chance soy or coconut milk could replace the buttermilk??
Hi Susan. Although I haven’t tried these methods, here are some options: coconut milk substitution here and soy milk substitution here. The key is to add in something acidic to make up for what’s missing when you remove the buttermilk.
Can you prepare the batter put into the muffin pan and store in the fridge to bake the next morning?
Hi, Meredith! No, because the recipe calls for baking powder, the muffins should be baked immediately. If you made the batter the night before, I believe the muffins would turn out a little more flat and dense.
I made these yesterday for my little family of 4. They are all gone!! Thanks for this yummy recipe!
Thanks for your comment, Jennifer. I’m so glad you liked the recipe 🙂
WELL I TRIED THESE AND THEY WERE AWESOME!! THANK YOU SO MUCH XOXO
Oh great – so glad to hear that!
Eggs are mentioned in the directions but not listed in the ingredients. How many eggs do you use for one batch of these?
Beth, thanks so much for pointing that out! 1 large egg is used and I’ve corrected the recipe in the post.
These are the best breakfast muffins I have ever seen! My mornings usually begin with a smoothie and muffin so this recipe is definitely one i will be recreating. Thanks for sharing it!
Thanks, Thalia. Hope you enjoy them!